


Stardrop Shorts

by punkinoodle



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:07:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21619615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punkinoodle/pseuds/punkinoodle
Summary: This is a collection of short stories that I can work on while I'm writing my main fic. I'm not going to release my long fic until it's finished, but this is a way for me to get some content out in the meantime. It mostly centers on the continuing adventures of my OC farmer Lucy, Shane, and their family, but there may be short stories which center around other characters and the way I imagine their lives unfolding
Relationships: Shane/Female Player (Stardew Valley)
Kudos: 7





	Stardrop Shorts

Jenny had thought Art History would be an easy thing to study. She loved art, and by definition, art history already existed, no assembly required. What could go wrong? But there she sat, staring very hard at her computer screen, willing the facts she had spent the last two and a half hours pouring helter-skelter into her brain to assemble themselves into something that could pass for an essay. Keys jingled outside the apartment door. She waited, but instead of the door opening, she heard more jingling, then a frustrated grunt. Just as she was about to get up, her roommate burst in, carrying an armload of mail.

“Hey Jas. What’s up?” she called.

Jas sat down on the couch and dumped an armload of mail onto the coffee table, sliding her backpack onto the ground beside her.

“Not much. I didn’t get as much done today as I wanted, but it’s alright. I’m still pretty much on schedule.”

She began sorting through the envelopes on the table, examining each letter carefully and placing them in neat piles in front of her. Jenny scoffed.

“I could never write a thesis. I have no idea how you do it. I think I would actually kill myself.”

“You shouldn’t say that,” Jas mumbled.

“No, like you don’t understand, I would literally kill myself, it sounds SO stressful!”

Jas glanced up at her for a moment, then sighed and shook her head. She picked up one of the smaller piles and handed it to her.

“These are for you.”

Jenny glanced at them, then tossed them onto the dining table. She would look at them later.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Jas replied. She got up and began to fill her kettle at the sink. “And writing a thesis isn’t that hard if you stay on top of things and enjoy what you study. Besides, if I want to write journals about other people’s scientific discoveries, I think I should have some experience doing some research of my own.”

“I guess so.” Jenny turned back to her computer. Her unfinished essay loomed at her. “Hey what about you? Did you get any good mail?”

“Yup! I got a package from my Uncle and Aunt back home in Stardew Valley. Want to open it with me?”

“Sure!”

Jenny closed her laptop and pulled her chair over to the coffee table. Jas flicked on her kettle and grabbed a pair of scissors from a drawer beside the sink. Jenny watched as she placed a squareish cardboard box on the table and glided the sharp edge of the open pair of scissors along the taped-off seams of the lid flaps. The first thing she pulled from inside the box was an envelope, which she carefully set on top of one of the piles already on the coffee table. Next, she pulled out a bag of ground coffee beans. The bag was adorned with an attractive logo which read “Dewdrop Farm.”

“My aunt has a pretty successful farm right next to my hometown,” Jas said. “She grows a lot of things there, but it’s famous for its coffee. As much as my uncle resents that…”

She smirked. Jenny stared at her.

“My uncle loves chickens,” Jas explained. “When I was a little girl, he engineered a strand of chickens that have brilliant blue feathers. When I was little, I think they had one named Jenny, actually.”

“That’s… funny…”

Jenny the human watched as Jas picked up the envelope from the top of the pile and opened it. Inside was a stack of photographs. She flipped through them, smiling as she went, then handed the stack to Jenny. The photo on top was of a middle-aged man wearing shorts and a tattered hoodie, surrounded by a flock of bright blue chickens. Jenny stared at the picture in amazement.

“This isn’t photoshopped?”

“Nope.”

Jas was beaming. Jenny flipped through the photos as Jas continued to dig through the box. Most of them were of the same middle-aged man, a blonde woman of about the same age, and three young children – two dark-haired girls and a boy with bouncy blond curls. There were other animals in the pictures as well, though the woman seemed to prefer an orange tabby.

“Anyway, he wanted the farm to be famous for its eggs, not the coffee.” Jas lifted a green turtleneck sweater out of the box, examined it, then began to re-fold it. “I guess he should’ve figured out a way to make the eggs blue, too.”

“Are these your cousins?”

Jenny waved the pictures in the air. Jas nodded.

“Nadia, Derek, Ana. Aunt Lucy told me she was going to get some pictures printed before I left after winter break. I have a couple photos of them in my room already, but they just keep growing!”

“They’re cute.”

Jenny tossed the pictures back on the coffee table. Jas scooped them up and slid them back into the envelope. Just then, her kettle finished boiling and clicked itself off. She got up from her seat and disappeared into the kitchen. Reluctantly, Jenny dragged herself back to the dining table and opened her laptop, only to be met once again with the grim face of her dreaded essay. A few unproductive minutes later, Jas came back out of the kitchen with a mug in each hand.

“Thesis or not, I figure you’re going to need some help with whatever you’re working on.”

She set one of the mugs down on the table beside her. The smell of fresh coffee rose from the steaming mug. Jenny took it from her appreciatively.

“I think you’re right. Thanks, Jas.”

“No problem. Enjoy.”

* * *

Jas shut her bedroom door behind her and sat down at her desk. She took a sip of her coffee. Jas had never been much of a coffee connoisseur, but she had come to appreciate the distinctive flavours of the produce grown on her aunt’s farm. Her aunt’s coffee had gotten her through her undergrad – financially, emotionally, and in terms of productivity. Now that she was alone, she opened the rest of her mail, saving the envelope from her uncle and aunt’s package for last. After accumulating a pile of paper on her desk to be recycled and a few more bullet points on her to-do list, she opened the envelope to find that it contained a handwritten letter and a crayon drawing done on a folded piece of printer paper.

Jas looked at the drawing first. It was very badly done, but Jas could tell it was a family portrait with her youngest cousin, Anastasia, standing in the middle. Next on Ana’s left was Derek, then her father Shane, and on her right was Nadia, the oldest sibling, followed by her mother, Lucy. They were barely more than stick figures. Their faces bore grotesquely disproportionate and simplistic features, and their heights were hilariously inconsistent with reality. The words “From Ana (with help from Derek),” were written in a semi-legible scrawl in the bottom corner of the page. Jas grinned, and reached into her drawer. She grabbed a roll of scotch tape and attached it to her wall so she could see it easily from her desk. Their nightmarish frames would bless her work from their post.

At last, she reached for the letter. On inspection, she found that the letter was actually two letters – one from her aunt and one from her uncle. Jas read the letter on the front side of the paper first:

Dear Jas,

It was so nice to have you here with us in Pelican Town for the Festival of the Winter Star! Everyone really misses you, especially your Aunt Marnie, but I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that. I hope your studies are going well, and that you’re taking enough time to relax and take care of yourself. I don’t want you coming back home crazy one of these days – I’ve brought enough crazy into the family as it is. You’re such a hard worker, and I’m very proud of you.

Nadia wants me to tell you to eat a well-balanced diet and take walks in nature to clear your head. Derek wants me to tell you that he watched a show on the Discovery Channel about different kinds of birds and their lifestyles. He thinks you would be really good as the host of a TV show about biology if you wanted. Ana wants me to tell you that she likes your hair, but she was too shy to tell you while you were here. (She denies that last part but it’s true and so you get to know about it.)

The real reason I’m writing you this letter is because you left your sweater at our house when you were in Pelican Town, and then I remembered those pictures I promised you, and things just snowballed from there. Please stay safe and healthy at school. Remember I’m always a phone call (or a couple of hours) away if you need anything, and I mean that.

Love you lots,

Lucy

Her uncle’s letter was significantly shorter, and read as follows:

Hey kiddo, how’ve you been? It feels like I basically just saw you, but I still miss you already. Funny how that works. I don’t really have any news for you, I just wanted to tell you that I love you, and I was real happy to have you back for a few weeks, you know? I know Zuzu City isn’t that far away, but it feels kinda far when we only get to see you a couple times a year. That being said, I’m super proud of you, and I know you’re gonna be the best damn science writer the world has ever seen, even if I can’t understand what you’re saying half the time. Keep following your dreams, kid. No matter what life throws at you, Lucy and I’ve got your back.

Uncle Shane

Jas re-folded the letter and slipped it in her desk drawer. She took a deep breath and opened her laptop. From her browser, she opened a bookmark to a website that held job postings for freelance writers. Most of the jobs she took were ads, since they were relatively short and required minimal to no research. Though her aunt and uncle did assist her financially, these writing jobs were how she did her part in supporting herself while she was at school. She sipped her coffee as she scrolled through the postings. Her mouse hovered over a familiar name. She set down her mug and opened the full description. It read:

SHORT TV-STYLE AD FOR NEW NOVELTY BEVERAGE

Producer – Joja Co.

Product – Joja Cola NegaTEN

Product Description – Joja Cola NegaTEN is designed to provide a fresh, crisp taste while protecting the consumer from the negative effects of sodium in other snack foods. This is achieved through the addition of Tenapanor, which inhibits the absorption of sodium into the body. This effectively reduces the risk of hypertension in the consumer. The drink also contains 300 mg of caffeine for an energizing kick.

Ad Details – The advertisement should be 20-30 seconds long and should require narration from no more than one voice. The voiceover, if any, will be played over animated visuals and should be designed with this in mind. The ad should mention both the energy boosting properties of the beverage and its limiting power on the effects of sodium in the body.

Jas skimmed the posting. She’d seen large companies post on the website in the past, but never one as big as Joja Co. She wasn’t quite sure, but her theory was that such organizations used freelance writing websites like the one she was on to avoid the costs of a salary and benefits for a permanent, in-house writer. Based on what she knew about Joja’s company practices, she felt the theory wasn’t so outlandish.

It had been years since her uncle had worked at the Joja Mart in her hometown, but the memories of that time in her life still rose to her vividly. Memories of gritty, grey smoke steaming from metal chutes. Memories of red eyes and the smell of alcohol. The sounds of hidden muttering under breath, warning stares, and the unnerving smile that was permanently fixed on the face of the store’s manager. She was only seven at the time, but she was old enough to sense the way her uncle felt about his job, and furthermore, his life. Nobody could be sure of how strongly his employment at Joja Co. had negatively affected his mental health, it had certainly done nothing to improve it, and for Jas, the associations were strong.

She glanced at the posting date at the bottom of the page. It had been up for almost a month. It was rare for such a simple job to be up for more than a week and a half. She could not know why people were avoiding the job, but she was certainly not about to find out. Taking a sip of her coffee, she clicked off the page and scrolled by to the next posting. Joja would have to wait on that ad just a little while longer.

The world had turned dark outside her window by the time she finally closed her laptop. Before going to bed that night, she retrieved the letter from her uncle and aunt from her desk drawer and placed it on her nightstand. As she lay in bed, she flipped through the photos her family had sent. Jas was a strong believer that little decisions could create significant impact in the world. Just as a single person can change the lives of an entire town, a careful choice has the power to send a loud message. That night, she fell asleep with the encouraging words of her family running through her mind. Though she didn’t acknowledge it as often as she knew she should, she was deeply grateful for presence of each and every person in her life, and she promised herself that she would never let herself take any of them for granted.


End file.
